LYNCHBURG — Virginia Tech baseball made program history just over three weeks ago when it pitched the program’s first combined no-hitter in 26 years against Radford at home. That game ended in seven innings due to the run rule.
At Liberty Baseball Stadium on Wednesday, the Hokies no-hit the Flames through 6 ⅔ innings and eventually won 8-4. Liberty entered 26 on the RPI and served as a Quadrant 1 win and Tech’s fourth-highest RPI victory this season, only behind No. 2 Georgia Tech, No. 18 Virginia and No. 23 Boston College.
The Flames (35-14) came in with a four-game winning streak over Tech (26-21), including an 11-4 victory in Blacksburg on April 7. The Hokies have come a long way since then. Wednesday’s win was their 10th in 13 games and a significant résumé boost for a team recently projected into the NCAA Tournament by D1Baseball and hoping to stay there.
“One, it took some of those new guys a little bit of time to get used to the speed of the game,” Hokies head coach John Szefc said of what’s changed since the last Liberty game. “Two, I just think we’ve pitched better. We’ve gotten better starts.”
Tech received most of its offensive contributions from the top of its lineup, most notably from Henry Cooke, who accounted for all of the Hokies’ first three runs with a first-inning RBI groundout and, in the third inning, a two-run bomb decimated over the left-field bullpen.
“He’s one of the best catcher/hitters in our league, if not the country,” Szefc said of Cooke, who’s batting .471 through four games in May. “That’s the kind of Henry Cooke that you’re kind of expecting to see.”
Madden Clement started for the Hokies and pitched 2 ⅓ hitless innings, though shaky command put two runners in scoring position when Ethan Grim inherited the game in the third frame. The freshman put the Flames away without any runs, getting Tanner Marsh to fly out and striking out Riley DeCandido.
Grim earned his second winning decision of the year (2-4), pitching six more no-hit outs with just one walk and two strikeouts. Logan Eisenreich kept the no-hitter alive with a 1-2-3 sixth inning, opening it by striking out Marsh on a nasty slider.
It held for two more outs when Brody Roe entered to start the sixth frame, but the Flames followed with four straight hits off the Kansas State transfer, ending with a Josh Campos bases-clearing double to turn a 7-0 baseball game into a 7-3 one.
Preston Crowl relieved Roe with Campos in scoring position and surrendered a Marsh single that only scored a run due to a Daniel throwing error at shortstop. That made the score 7-4 while extending the inning by one batter.
However, the Hokies didn’t let Liberty claw back any further. In fact, they answered. Pete Daniel worked a 3-2 single in the following side, followed by a 10-pitch walk for Sam Grube. Ethan Gibson bunted them forward before the Flames intentionally walked Cooke and Ball struck a sacrifice fly into deep left field. On the other side, Crowl didn’t surrender another hit in the final two innings — much less another run.
“That was one of our best games that year as far as how we pitched and how we played defense,” Szefc said. “I know that they scored four there in the seventh. … It’s rare to see a team get that many straight hits with two outs, but it happened, and our guys weathered it.
“I thought a big part of that game was our guys coming back and scoring a run after they put up the four-spot. I mean, 8-4 is a lot different than 7-4 when you’re on the road.”
Cooke, Ball, Sam Gates and Daniel recorded multi-hit games Wednesday and each added multiple RBI while Daniel had one.
That came in the fifth inning, when the Belmont transfer hit his second home run of the year off Liberty reliever Matt Porter. He previously hit Grube and struck out Gibson before the Flames pivoted to righty Aydan Decker-Petty, hoping to contain Cooke. Instead, the senior singled, as did Ball to make it 5-0 Tech.
The rest of the Hokies’ runs came in the seventh inning, when Cooke and Ball walked and Nick Locurto singled to load the bases. Gates brought two home with a base hit through the right side of the infield, putting the Tech ahead 7-0 before Ball’s sacrifice fly added one more in the eighth.
The Hokies’ win against Liberty does not necessarily mean they’re off the hook for series wins against UNC Greensboro this weekend or Clemson after that, but an extra Quadrant 1 victory never hurts, especially for a team that entered with a 4-11 record in such games.
Tech returns to Blacksburg to play the Spartans on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra. The series is just two games, with the Sunday matchup beginning at 1 p.m.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 8, Liberty 4